Prolonged Thought of Ice

Upon finishing the reading, a sense of guilt settled on me. The situation Noria and the others are facing is due is to us, people from the past world. I mean did we really end winter? Although hypothetical, I feel like we are the reason for their hardship. When I found out winter no longer occurred, it took the meaning of climate change to a whole new level. We are guilty of the plastic junkyard, limited water, lack of snow, and more. Itaranta paints a world where we can literally see a possibility of our future.

Emmi Itaranta’s writing style is, dare I say, soft.  When she describes the movement of water, the tea ceremony, or nature in general, I feel like the words are like soft clouds which surround me as I move from page to page. She flows from one sentence to the next without any awkward pauses or harshness. I found myself pausing and rereading the descriptions of the tea ceremony to understand it. Maybe her writing style will change after Master Kaitio’s death or when the military finds out about the spring.

There are a few quotes that struck me. One of the quote is “I thought of water, ever changing, and I thought of the suspended moment, the movement stopped in a snow crystal or a shard of ice. Stillness, silence. An end, or perhaps the beginning.” on pg 41. The water becoming ice could be seen as the end or the beginning, depending on the perspective.  I thought of the time of millions of years ago when thick ice sheets covered the Earth which made life itself impossible. It could be seen as the end of life. But when the ice sheets started to melt and the ground started to thaw, organisms started to evolve and life began anew. But if the current icebergs melt down completely, life will be endangered by the rising of the sea levels, just how the shorelines changed in the novel. It is a dangerous cycle. Ice is neither always a positive thing nor a negative thing. It needs to be balanced.

Noria’s fascination with winter, cold, and ice is disheartening because there will never be winter. She reveres the idea of winter and cold, things many New Yorkers loathe, including myself. However, her fascination with snow made me realize one thing. Most Americans including a lot of people in this world never experienced snow just like Noria. I wonder what they think it feels like.

What I love about Noria is her determination to learn about the past world and about its winters. She tried to understand her mom’s scientific books just to know how it feels to have snow melted against the palm. After she discovered most of the books, she remained disappointed and asked the most important question. “What good was it to know the composition of a snow crystal, if one couldn’t resurrect the sensation of its coldness against one’s skin and the sight of its glimmer?”. This question on page 42 made me ask more questions. What good is it knowing the effects of climate change when we don’t act to change our ways? What good will it be to save (rather keep) the polar bears in zoos rather than to help protect their habitat? What good will it be when we have the ice caps painted in our books but not present for our grandchildren to see? I feel guilty because Noria can’t experience the cold and snow. I feel more horrible thinking it could be the future of my grandchildren.

The experience matters, not the words, not the description, just the experience.

I am really enjoying the book! It is an extremely interesting read. I almost missed my stop on the train ride back home. I can’t wait to read more.